For those of us who were little girls in 1994, the image of statuesque figure skater Nancy Kerrigan crumbling to the ground after a brutal attack on her knee is forever imprinted on our minds. We remember Kerrigan, the Disney Princess of her time, yelling "Why? Why? Why?" and we recall that her rival, Tonya Harding, was somehow connected. But what exactly happened? And, as Kerrigan cried, why?

The new ESPN documentary The Price of Goldhelps make sense of the scandal 20 years later, explaining how the crime unraveled during the six weeks between when Kerrigan was struck at the U.S. National Championship and the Winter Olympics kicked off in Lillehammer, Norway. Details surfaced quickly that the attack was carried out by a hit man hired by Harding's ex-husband, Jeff Gillooly, ensuring that the incident would become a full-blown media circus. Gillooly and his associates confessed to the crime, and Harding was questioned by police and almost kicked off the Olympic team — but a preemptive lawsuit on her part ensured that she kept her place. After Kerrigan finished second in Lillehammer and Harding a distant eighth, Harding pleaded guilty to conspiracy to hinder prosecution and was banned from skating. The Price of Gold includes new interviews with Harding and never-before-seen footage of her difficult childhood and Kerrigan's rehab. Director Nanette Burstein spoke with Cosmopolitan.com about why this tale of two fierce female athletes still resonates.

You interviewed Tonya Harding twice in person for this documentary, but Nancy Kerrigan declined. Why do you think that was?

[Nancy]'s always been very upset that she's been associated with this. What she'd like to be remembered as is the girl who came back and won the silver medal despite a horrible injury. What she doesn't want to be remembered as is a victim. So she feels like the more she talks about it, the more she's associated with that. And especially since we were already interviewing Tonya, that made it even less appealing to her. She feels like, "My story has nothing to do with Tonya's. I got hit and I was able to recover and didn't have anything to do really with Tonya as far as I'm concerned."

What was Tonya's demeanor like when you talked to her?

She's very open about her childhood and feels very comfortable talking about that. Once you get to 1994, she has such strong emotions about it that she gets upset and angry. You can just see her blood pressure go up. And she's very open about it. She's like, "I hate talking about this. I get so emotional, I get so angry." So that part of it is very hard for her to do. We would actually take breaks during the interviews just to chill because she would get really upset talking about certain things that happened.

Why do you think this story is still so personal to the rest of the world? Why did it become the media circus it did?

I don't think there's ever been another incident where one competitor has tried to hurt —or at least their friend or relative hurt — their other competitor off the field. This doesn't happen. Particularly with women, that's even more unusual. And then on top of it, it's not just women, it's figure skating, which is all about grace and beauty and poise.

For something like that to happen, in such a noble arena, is so shocking for people. And I think, even though Nancy actually came from a working-class background, she looked like she came from wealth, whereas Tonya obviously came from a poor background. It was an easy story for the media to take advantage of. It was this Beauty and the Beast sort of thing in the way that they painted it — even though it wasn't true — so it had this soap opera quality. Plus, you know, the attack happened Jan. 6, and the Olympics were six weeks away. Every single day something new happened in the case, whether it was Nancy's recovery or — more likely — who was being caught. First it was the bodyguard, then it was the guy they hired to do it, then it was Tonya's husband, then Tonya was brought in for questioning. Then Tonya was maybe not allowed to go to the Olympics and then she sued the Olympic Committee.

It just fed into this new outlet, which was just beginning to happen, of the 24-hour news station. This is the same year that the O.J. [Simpson trial] happened. It was right after the Menendez brothers. The news media needed to feed the beast. They had these new channels, and they had to fill the airtime. This is sort of the perfect story to fit into that.

Something that brought back memories was the image of Tonya in her "no comment" shirt.

Yeah, the media was hounding her 24 hours a day. Because she was in the midst of legal proceedings, she wasn't allowed to make any comment, so she started wearing this T-shirt that just said "no comment" because she was tired of telling people, "I can't talk to you about this!"

But didn't that feed into the image of Tonya as this sassy girl from the wrong side of the tracks versus Nancy in her Vera Wang costumes?

Yes, Nancy had great poise, and she was completely isolated while this was going on. They did not allow anyone into the rink where she skated. She had no interest in talking to the cameras, whereas Tonya, you know, she had fun with it. [But] after a while it definitely took its toll on her. At first it was sort of, "OK, let me have fun with this," but then it became a nightmare for her as she was trying to get ready for the Olympics and also with all the legal stuff going on and closing in on her. Her life was becoming really quite horrible.

The story ends with Tonya Harding pleading guilty to hindering the prosecution and subsequently being banned from skating. Do you think that was a fair punishment?

I think it's tragic what happened to her. Of course, it was never proven that she was involved, even if there was a lot of mounting evidence. All she did admit to was knowing about it after the fact. I don't know, it's a very gray area. I know that her life was ruined. She couldn't skate again. She was not invited to shows. It was hard for her to be able to be a coach. And yet she had a GED. She hadn't graduated from high school. She had nothing to fall back on. So I don't know if it was deserved or not. I'm on the fence about that.